Spenser Confidential

Spenser Confidential
Official release poster
Directed by	Peter Berg
Screenplay by	Sean O'Keefe Brian Helgeland
Produced by	Neal H. Moritz Toby Ascher Mark Wahlberg Stephen Levinson Peter Berg
Starring	Mark Wahlberg Winston Duke Alan Arkin Iliza Shlesinger Bokeem Woodbine Marc Maron Austin Post
Cinematography	Tobias A. Schliessler
Edited by	Mike Sale
Music by	Steve Jablonsky
Production companies	Original Film Closest to the Hole Productions Leverage Entertainment Film 44
Distributed by	Netflix
Release date	March 6, 2020 (2020-03-06) (United States)
Running time	111 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Spenser Confidential is a 2020 American action comedy film directed by Peter Berg and with a screenplay by Sean O'Keefe and Brian Helgeland. This film centers the plot of an ex-convict, former Boston police officer, whose task is to take down the Trinitario drug gang after two Boston officers were murdered. It is very loosely based on the novel Wonderland by Ace Atkins, and uses the names of characters created by Robert B. Parker. The film stars Mark Wahlberg, Winston Duke, Alan Arkin, Iliza Shlesinger, Bokeem Woodbine, Donald Cerrone, Marc Maron, and Austin Post and marks the fifth collaboration between Wahlberg and Berg after Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon, Patriots Day, and Mile 22.

The film was released on March 6, 2020, by Netflix.

Plot

Detective Spenser arrives with his partner Driscoll to the home of Captain John Boylan. While questioning about the woman named Gloria Wiesnewski, and the tape footage of Wiesnewski's murder leaked by Cosgrove, the confrontation gets heated, and Spenser beats Boylan senseless and was subsequently sent to prison.

Five years later, Spenser is released, and is picked up by his friend Henry Cimoli. His ex, Cissy is there to his surprise but runs and drives away with Henry.

At night, Boylan is driving while talking to his daughter over the phone. A truck hits him at a school bus yard and some hooded men drags him out from the car and beats him mercilessly, which his daughter can hear, before he was violently killed. The next morning, a nurse named Letitia Graham comes home to find her husband Terrence dead in car with a gunshot wound to his head. Spenser is prime suspect in Boylan's murder, but was eventually let go by Driscoll as he was in Cimoli's residence during that time. Spenser sees that Terrence is being accused of involvement in the murder, as well as news in the media that he possibly committed suicide out of guilt. Spenser decides to take the case since he personally knew Terrence and knew he was a great cop.

After some mishaps and brawls throughout investigation, Spenser goes to Letitia’s apartment after it’s been vandalized, and she gives him an audio recording that Terrence hid between himself and Boylan. The tape confirms that Boylan was a dirty cop, and that Bentwood, Macklin, and Driscoll all worked together, and it was Driscoll who struck the killing blow to Boylan. Spenser brings the tape to the FBI, but they deem it insufficient evidence to go after Driscoll and to clear Graham's name.

Spenser finds Bentwood and violently interrogates him. He confesses that there’s a shipment of drugs coming from New Hampshire to Wonderland, a casino syndicate of the dirty cops and the Trinitarios. Spenser and Hawk find the van and run it off the road, taking down two crooks inside (but the other one escapes) before coming across the stash. Spenser is later contacted by Driscoll, who knows that Spenser knows about him, told Spenser that Cimoli has been kidnapped and he forces him to meet at Wonderland within an hour. Cissy and Hawk joins in.

The three arrives in Wonderland, attacking the criminals and freeing Cimoli. Spenser chases after Driscoll, and engages in a brawl where Spenser was overpowered, but he gained a upper hand against Driscoll. However, he stopped just short of beating him the same way he beat Boylan to avoid returning to jail, and instead handcuffed him. They leave the dirty cops outside with all the evidence, just as the police, and the FBI arrive to arrest Driscoll and his goons. Terrence Graham was posthumously cleared from all charges.

In a restaurant, Spenser sees a news report of a church fire from two years earlier, and the Boston fire chief is under arrest though he claims to be innocent. Spenser knows him from before, and predicts that he was about to take the case, which Cissy warns him.

Cast

• Mark Wahlberg as Spenser
• Winston Duke as Hawk
• Alan Arkin as Henry
• Iliza Shlesinger as Cissy Davis
• Bokeem Woodbine as Driscoll
• Marc Maron as Wayne Cosgrove
• Austin Post as Squeeb
• James DuMont as "Tracksuit Charlie" Bentwood
• Michael Gaston as Captain Boylan
• Colleen Camp as Mara
• Hope Olaide Wilson as Letitia
• Kip Weeks as Macklin
• Rebecca Gibel as Laurie Boylan
• Big Shug as. W. Lintz
• Donald Cerrone as Big Boy
• Justus Carney as Liquor Store Worker
• Christopher Gerard Weigel as Hipster
• Brandon Scales as Terrence Graham

Production

On June 26, 2018, it was announced that Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg would collaborate for the fifth time, on the film adaptation of Wonderland, one of the novel series written by Ace Atkins based on Robert B. Parker's character Spenser, which would be streamed by Netflix. The script, by Sean O'Keefe, is a very loose adaptation of the novel. The characters in the film do not reflect the characters in the novel beyond the names used. Nothing else about them is reflected in the novel or the original works by Robert B. Parker. The film was produced by Neal H. Moritz through his Original Film along with Stephen Levinson and Wahlberg, and Berg through his Film 44. In October 2018, Winston Duke joined the cast to play Hawk. That same month, Post Malone, Alan Arkin, Iliza Shlesinger, Bokeem Woodbine, James DuMont, Marc Maron and Michael Gaston joined the cast of the film. In November 2018, Colleen Camp joined the cast of the film.

Filming began in late 2018 in Boston. The residence of character Cimoli (with whom Spenser is staying) was filmed in the Jones Hill neighborhood of Boston, on the street where actor Wahlberg lived during his teenage years.

Music

The film score was composed by Steve Jablonsky, who has worked with director Peter Berg on previous films. The soundtrack was released by BMG.

Release

The film was released by Netflix on March 6, 2020.

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 39% based on 67 reviews, with an average rating of 4.70/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "While the buddy cops at the center of Spenser Confidential are plenty affable, the comedy never arrives as this half-hearted vehicle goes purely through the motions." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 49 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

External links

• Spenser Confidential at IMDb
• Spenser Confidential at Rotten Tomatoes